Product remanufacturing and disposal: A numerical comparison of alternative control strategies

In this paper the authors consider a single-product, single-echelon production and inventory system with product returns, product remanufacturing, and product disposal. For this system they consider three different procurement and inventory control strategies, i.e. the (sÅp,QÅp,sÅd,N) strategy, the (sÅp,QÅp,sÅd) strategy, and the (sÅp,QÅp,N) strategy. The control parameters in these strategies relate to the inventory position at which an outside procurement order is placed (sÅp), the inventory position at which returned products are disposed of (sÅd), the outside procurement order quantity (QÅp), and the capacity of the remanufacturing facility (N). For each of the strategies the authors derive exact expressions of the total expected costs as functions of the control parameters. Main objective of this paper is to compare the performance of each of the alternative strategies with respect to costs, under different system conditions.